Camping in the Mainland
by Mihasel
Summary: Could be Worse Verse', set in the middle of Things Could be Worse. Major Evans Lorne had a brilliant career under his belt and he was confident in his balanced mind. At least until he met Atlantis' new, strange recruit: Dean Winchester. Lorne places him in a group of fresh marines for a simple recon mission on the mainland...What could possibly go wrong?


_**Could be Worse**_ _ **Verse' – Side Story – Mainland**_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Supernatural, Stargate Atlantis or Stargate SG-1. I don't own any characters nor I making any profit from it.

 **Warnings:** Language and violence.

 **Notes:** SGA/SPN Crossover. SGA – Early second season, after Trinity; SPN – Pre series, completely AU.

First side story in the _**Could be Worse Verse'**_. Set in the middle of _**Things Could be Worse**_ , in _Chapter 4 - Through the freaking labs_ , but it should be read after _Chapter 5 -_ _Stairway to Hell._

 _Thank you_ _ **Lizbug**_ _, you're an amazing beta-reader!_

 _Sorry for the huge delay in updating the main story, here a little something I was working on..._

 _I hope you like it!_

 _I'm planning a couple of one-shot stories for this Verse'._

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 **Camping in the Mainland**

Major Evans Lorne had a brilliant career under his belt. He'd worked several years in the Stargate Command and had his own team in the Milky Way.

When Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard offered him a job in Atlantis he thought about his answer for a while, but deep down he felt ready the moment the Colonel asked him if he wanted to be his second in command.

He had read the reports from Atlantis and he was eager to serve with Sheppard.

Just like working with the SG-1, it needed a certain level of tolerance for craziness to keep up with the Atlantis' scientists and the SGA-1 itself, but the Major was fairly confident in his balanced mind.

At least until he met Dean Winchester.

The man seemed like O'Neill's younger clone: A pain in the ass, with a good skillset and a mouth full of witty retorts.

Much to Lorne's dismay, everyone treated him like one of the soldiers despite his civilian status.

So each times a scientist, like Kavanagh, or a new bossy marine from the Daedalus didn't appreciate his conduct, they complained and a report magically appeared on the Major's desk.

Most of the times were small problems: childlike pranks, insubordination or things like that. It wasn't like he wasn't able to respect the chain of command, Winchester simply… had a gift for rub certain people the wrong way.

Lorne thought he just needed to fit in a unit and the problems would gradually fade by themselves.

That was at least what he hoped.

"Winchester come in."

"Did you want to see me, sir?"

"Yes, we have a new batch of marines from the Daedalus. I want you to gear up and go with Lieutenant Bichly and his unit on the mainland."

Dean smirked.

"Lieutenant _Bitch-ly_ , sir?"

Lorne looked at him with a serious face; that wasn't a good start.

"I'll be clear. I want you to fit in, so play nice. Lieutenant Bichly will take the unit on a scouting mission on the forest."

"So we go… camping? Why?"

Lorne let out a sigh.

"It's important to learn how to react in an unidentified environment as a team and the forest on the mainland is the perfect place. Beside I heard you have a pretty good deal with the Athosian hunters. You can help the team to find a suitable ground for the mission without giving problems to the Athosians."

"Oh… come on! Who is bitching around this time? I didn't even poke McKay this week!"

Lorne raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"This is not a punishment, Winchester. The lieutenant and his team are new in this galaxy as are you, if you ever want to do something else other than patrol you have to start working together with others."

"Fine. When do we leave?"

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The trip in the forest began with a boring walk of ten kilometers in the northeast zone, not too far from the settlement but not near enough to bother the hunting parties in their job.

The group of three soldiers plus one civilian were walking in formation behind their leader, Lieutenant Bichly.

The lieutenant was a by the book sort of man and he found Winchester's presence particularly insufferable.

The man wasn't a marine yet he faked being one, worse the people on Atlantis let him do it. From what he heard on the Daedalus, Winchester had: the training of a marine, the arrogance of a scientist and the wicked personality of a criminal.

Lieutenant Nigel Bichly hated the civilian on principle.

On the bright side, Major Lorne gave him full authority on this mission.

For his men, it was a cakewalk. They'd had dozens of those trainings exercises on Earth, so he wasn't concerned. Besides it was an ordinary forest like those they had back home, they would complete their task without problems.

However, the Lieutenant was watching their civilian with a keen eye: one wrong move and Nigel would have the excuse he needed to report him to his superior and ask for his removal from the program.

He moved aside two wide, palm-like leaves from his path. They had a nice smell and were really soft to the touch.

"Those are mildly poisonous plants. It would be wise to avoid any contact, sir."

As ordered Dean was escorting the team in the deep woods of the mainland without anything than plain professionalism.

"Winchester! Why you didn't say it earlier!?"

Dean smiled for a second.

"I was watching the surroundings, sir. There are a lot of wild animals in this area."

Despite his professional, his tone seemed always to mock him and Nigel was boiling with rage.

After walking for hours they made a camp in the middle of the forest, surrounded by large oak-like trees. Their mission was to camp two nights in the woods and then return home.  
A tall, bulky corporal was working on the fire while Dean and another guy set the tents for the night. The Lieutenant and his second in command were guarding the site.

A man ran towards them out of the blue.

The Lieutenant was caught by surprise by the sudden figure and he was ready to shoot when Dean entered his line of fire. Nigel stopped his finger right on time.

"Don't shoot! He is an Athosian!"

"Winchester! What were you thinking? I almost blew your head off!"

Dean made a nasty expression before turning his head towards the new comer.  
The man leaned his forehead towards Dean's head as greeting.

"My friend! It is a good thing I find you here. We need your help."

"Wolan, what happened?"

Before the Athosian could speak the team approached and the Lieutenant halted him.

"Wait! Who are you and how did you found us?"

The Athosian shot a strange look to the Lieutenant then looked back to Dean. With a small nod of Dean's head the Athosian started again, this time addressing the Lieutenant.

"My name is Wolan, I come from the Athosian settlement. Wex, my son, is missing. I came to request your help. - "

They could see the distress on his face.

"He was playing with his friends and went into the forest. Wex is young and he doesn't have any weapons with him. These woods are full of dangerous beasts. Please help me."

"You heard the man, let's go."

With one swift order by their leader the team started packing the essentials for a rescue mission, leaving behind the excess weight. Dean kept talking with Wolan the whole time, asking where the kids were playing and how they had organized the search party.

The Lieutenant wasn't happy at this change of program but unexpected things could happen during their missions so he considered it as part of the training. Besides a child was missing.

"I'm Lieutenant Nigel Bichly. We will help you find your boy, sir, but first I have a question. How did you find us?"

Wolan shot him a wide smile.

"Your people make a lot of unnecessary noise, Lieutenant. And it was easy to follow your tracks."

The Lieutenant stood there without replying, fuming inside. The way the Athosian patronized him made him angry. They had done thousands of missions in stealth mode and this man dared to say they were noisy.  
It was clear the Athosians knew beforehand were they would be camping and he was just showing off. Maybe Winchester told them their location.

Damned civilian.

One of the men in the camp, a sergeant, approached the group.

"Sir, should I go back and scan with the jumper?"

Bichly considered the request for a moment.

It sure would help during the research to have aerial support, so he decided to send back Dean. He had the ATA gene too, he could fly the jumper. That way the team could work without a dead weight and move faster in the forest. Plus he would get rid of him for a while. A win-win situation.

Yet his order met an irritated yelp from the Athosian.

"My fellow hunter here knows this land better than the rest of you. I came here to ask his help. Please we need to hurry before the night falls."

Wolan made a good point, the civilian knew the forest better than them. Reluctantly, Bichly sent the sergeant back to the settlement where they had parked the jumper.

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They marched with a good pace.

Soon they found the other members of the Athosian search party and started to widen the search area using a grid pattern.

They looked for hours without pause, then night came.

The boy was still missing.

The jumper couldn't locate him because there were too many life signs in the forest and caves. The hunting party went to search the west zone, while the Atlantis' team kept searching in the north.

Nigel ordered the sergeant to stay in the settlement waiting for orders while Wolan departed from their group and joined a third team scouting in the south.

At night the visibility was so low that was hard to see a path and they found themselves back to their camp.

"Corporal Marsden prepare the fire, we'll stop here for tonight."

"The kid is still out there; we need to keep going."

Dean said looking at the tracks on the ground.

"I know that Winchester, but we can't keep going. We're losing the light and can't search in the dark.

Let's face it, the kid is probably hiding somewhere by now.

We'll stop here tonight and we'll resume the research at first light in the morning. And that's an order."

Dean stopped in mid track and turned back.

The other two marines were doing their jobs under Bichly's orders and didn't join the conversation. The Lieutenant was looking at Dean with an angry glare. They were all tired and the fact they hadn't found the boy was putting all on edge.

Dean had endured the lieutenant's bitch face and his heated scowls all day; he was annoyed as well.

If it wasn't for Major Lorne's request he would have already done something.

However, that was the last straw.

The Lieutenant was willing to stop the search for Wex in a forest full of dangers because the visibility was low.

Dean had hunted in this woods in the past months: some night creatures were as nasty as any monster he had encountered on Earth, and Wex was just a kid.

They both stared at each other for a while before Dean turned back to the camp.

"Winchester did you hear my order?"

"Yes, sir."

But his tone said otherwise.

*Like hell, douchebag!*

After they set up for the night Dean and the other two marines took turns to watch the camp while their leader went to sleep. He won the first turn while the other two divided between them the other night-shifts.

Dean worked out a plan to leave the camp after his watch.

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While he kept watch over the campsite, he packed his vest with all the things he would need. No bags, just the essentials, a couple of ammo clips for the gun and a knife. Lucky for him he hadn't any restrictions for this mission, so he could carry his weapons with him.

He heard in the distance the howls of what passed for a lion or a jaguar; if Wex was injured the smell of blood would likely draw the beast towards him.

He packed a portable med kit as well.

When the other marine came to relieve him from duty after two hours, he made his way toward the tent. Dean waited for a while, letting his teammate settled comfortable near a tree before he left.

Silently, just like his Athosian friends had taught him, he slowly merged with the forest and its sounds, stalking away from the camp without notice.

Two clicks away he heard a spine chilling howl. Hurriedly, he marked a tree then he started sprinting toward the east zone. It had been left unexplored during their search and was, apparently, home to a nest of dangerous wild beasts.

"Wex! Wex!"

Dean ran when he heard the voice. Wolan had kept searching and like him he had arrived at the same conclusion. The boy had to be in the eastern area.

"Wolan!"

"Dean!"

"Wolan stop shouting! You'll only attract unwanted attention."

"I know my friend, I heard the Megantereon's howling. But that means Wex is near, it must have sniffed his smell."

"Mega… ah you mean the big cat with those big teeth? Great and here I thought we were just dealing with Simba. Let's hope Diego doesn't have friends with him."

The Athosian didn't catch his references, Dean once again marked a tree and took his flashlight and his gun out.

"Come on we gotta move."

They ran through the forest following the sound of the beast. Their feet were making a bit of noise in the undergrowth but they soon came closer to the sound.

Then Wolan stopped on a path and crouched on the ground.

"There! You see? That's a footprint."

"Yes it's small, the right size for a child. Ok we are on the right path but look at the direction. It goes straight to those caves."

"Wex!"

The Athosian shouted with renewed strength.

"Shit! Stop it, Wolan! The big cat is close. Let's find him before it does."

They went at the cave under the mountain and looked at each opening. From time to time they heard a muffled sound in the foliage, then a single howl. While Wolan searched, Dean was keeping an eye on the forest. The beast was close he could feel its eyes on him.

Finally they heard a sniffing.

Wolan ran toward his son shouting his name, Dean turned around and followed the man. The kid had tears in his eyes, was trembling like a leaf and had a small cut on his arm, but aside that he was fine.

"D…Dad. I'm sorry."

The two of them were embracing each other.

"It is okay now, son, I am here."

Dean took an energy bar from his vest and gave it to Wex. The kid devoured it in a couple of bites while his father was tending the cut.

They had all forgotten about the menace until it was upon them.

The beast with two long saber-teeth was blocking the entrance, it was twice as large than a jaguar and had feral eyes.

Wolan took his knife out while Dean held up his gun and fired, but it was too late.

The creature jumped on the Athosian who held his knife high to defend himself from its teeth. The two of them went down and the beast attacked once again with its claws.

Trying to avoid shooting Wolan, Dean shot the creature several times. When he realized it wasn't working he tossed aside his gun and took out the knife.

He run toward it and planted the knife in its neck. There was a long moan and the beast crashed onto the ground with another knife wound in his belly; the combined wounds had finally killed the creature.

"Wolan! Wolan are you alright?"

"Yes, Dean, thanks to you."

The Athosian tried to rise but he couldn't.

His leg had a deep gash made by the claws and it was bleeding.

"Dad!"

Wex ran near his father and when he saw the blood he paled and tears started to forming again on his eyes.

"It is ok, son. It is just a wound."

Dean observed it and he didn't like what he saw: It was deep, bleeding profusely. If he didn't stop it soon, Wolan wouldn't make until the morning.

He looked at the entrance of the cave.

They couldn't walk through the forest and reach the camp site, they were too far away and he couldn't leave them there, alone, while he requested help. In his haste he'd forgotten to pick the radio from his cot so he didn't have any way to contact the team he'd left behind.

Wolan looked his friend in the eyes. Like a good hunter, the Athosian had already guessed what Dean had to say.

"Wolan I need to close that wound."

The Athosian nodded.

"Do not worry. We are tough people, Dean. Do it."

Dean took out from his tact vest all the things he had taken with him.

There were few bandages, salt, water, a lighter, a small flask of whiskey, two tabs of painkillers, ammunition, a sewing kit and a couple of energy bars.

First he ordered Wolan to lay down, took his belt and strapped it around his's leg right before the wound. He made a flamethrower to warm the cave and in order to have more light. Dean let to Wex the job to find a suitable position for it. After securing the area he turned once again to his wounded friend. Dean had to stop the bleeding and remove the cloths wrapped near the leg but he couldn't find his knife.

"Here. Yours is still in the Megantereon's neck. "

Wolan gave him his bloody knife.

"Right. Guess I'll clean mine once I get back to Atlantis."

He cleaned it as much as he could, cut the cloths and took them away. The blood was flowing slowly due to his improvised tourniquet.

"This will sting. Hold on."

Dean cleaned the wound with the whiskey and then gave the flask to Wolan.

"Drink, it helps."

Wolan nodded and drank half of the bottle. Dean start sewing the skin together, the Athosian grunted a little but he didn't let out any cry.

He swiftly completed his work: he had practiced a lot over the years by stitching his dad after a hunt; he knew what had to be done.

They cleaned the wound once again and wrapped the bandages around it. Then he loosened the belt a bit and gave the Athosian some painkillers.

Wex was sniffing the whole time but once it was over, he ran to his dad.

"Don't worry kid, it's ok for now. He just need some rest."

"…Thanks."

Dean placed himself at the entrance of the cave for the rest of the night and kept watching their surroundings.

From time to time he checked the wound, but he guessed it was fine, at least until doctor Beckett could take a look at it.

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When the sun was already high, they finally heard people calling their names.

"Over here!"

Lieutenant Bichly was leading the group of marines and Athosians, he was red in his face and was boiling with volcanic rage.

When they had woken up they didn't find Winchester in his tent and started to search around the camp. The Athosians were with them when they found the marks on the trees; thanks to those signs they found them in half the time.

Lieutenant Bichly was fuming: Dean had not only disobeyed a direct order but also made fools of his marines by leaving without them noticing it.

Dean, on the other hand, smirked.

Bichly's face was so hilarious he couldn't stop himself, he knew there would be consequences for his stunt but he didn't regret it.

"Winchester."

Before words could fly, Dean decide to give him a quick situation report.

"We found the missing boy, the kid is shaken but unharmed. Wolan needs medical assistance."

The lieutenant looked over his shoulder and saw Wolan on the cave floor with a wound in his leg.

Nigel wanted to beat Winchester like a pulp and teach him a lesson but he had to keep his priorities in check.

They had a wounded man and they had to report back to Atlantis. Also he couldn't lose face in front of the Athosians. He promised himself that Winchester would pay for his lack of discipline but not there.

The lieutenant ordered his men to help the wounded Athosian and requested aerial support from the sergeant on board the jumper.

Bichly turned to Dean again, muttering under his breath.

"This isn't over."

Then he walked away.

On the flight back Dean could have cut the tension with a knife.

Aside the Lieutenant the other two marines weren't happy with his conduct either but they just decided to ignore him like he didn't even exist.

So much for Lorne's plan to make friends and fit in.

"Great job down there. We didn't speak earlier…I'm Sergeant Frank Levine, USAF.

Nice to meet you."

"Thanks. Dean Winchester, like wise."

His co-pilot wasn't on site when he did his disappearing act so it seemed he didn't hold any grudge. But the air force guy heard what happened and tacitly approved.

The co-pilot kept talking but in a more whispered voice.

"You know I'm not even part of the team, I was transferred from the Daedalus as pilot. I only met Lieutenant Bichly while we were on board for the trip to the Pegasus Galaxy."

With just those few words Dean's flight back to Atlantis became a bit less uncomfortable.

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Major Lorne had scheduled his weekend. Since there were no threats and Sheppard wasn't on a mission he had arranged for his commanding officer to oversee several piles of paperwork before they were shipped to Earth. All teams off-world seemed to be safe and the one on the mainland was on a "camping" mission and wasn't scheduled to be back for at least other twenty-four hours.

He might finally be able to leave his desk for more than a couple of hours and relax a little.

He should have known better.

He was leaving his office when Lieutenant Bichly came to deliver his report.

"Lieutenant!? What are you doing here?"

Lorne was clearly surprised to see him there.

"We had to return because of an accident on the mainland, sir. The early return is due a medical emergency of an Athosian. It's all in my report, sir."

The guy in front of him was livid, Lorne could tell, yet he was responding to his questions with extreme efficiency.

Lorne wanted to groan loudly, that attitude for a simple mission meant only one thing: Winchester had done another of his stunts.

Evan sat in his chair and looked at the report.

He dreaded to read it.

As Bichly had said, the report described in excruciating detail what happened in the woods. At the end of the report the Lieutenant had marked Winchester as persona non grata for his team, accused him of insubordination to his direct orders, disrespect toward a superior officer and suggested his removal from Atlantis.

The fact that Winchester had defiantly disobeyed him was obvious by his report and usually he would agree with the lieutenant that his actions were worth of a severe reprimand, however it was thanks to Winchester that the Athosian was only wounded and not dead and the boy was rescued.

That had to count for something.

Also, as he was kept saying to everyone, Winchester wasn't a soldier. So, despite all, Lorne couldn't actually dismiss him from duty and send him back to Earth.

However, it seemed the whole City expected for him to manage this situation.

He sighed. Again.

"Very well, Lieutenant. I'll take care of it. Let your team rest, you'll be included in the roster for the off-world missions soon."

The Lieutenant went stiff and was almost ready to say something else, but Lorne didn't have the patience to listen to his petty complaints.

"Dismissed."

Evan set in his office with his eyes closed.

He had to ground Winchester for his lack of discipline, maybe set an exemplary punishment but he sympathized with the situation. Lorne had two nephews, in Bichly's place he wouldn't have interrupted the rescue mission at all.

He sighed and tapped his comm-link.

"Winchester get your ass here."

He heard a soft curse thought the channel.

"... coming, sir."

The next person who entered his office however was Doctor Beckett.

"Doc…I wasn't expecting you. Is there any problem?"

"Uhm? No, sorry to bother you Major but I came to report on the Athosian and his wound. Sheppard said to file the report with you."

He briefly read the report, like every other medical report was neatly written. It seemed that in a couple of weeks the Athosian would have just a big scar on his leg, nothing else.

"Something to add?"

"Yes, I must say that lad is really full of surprise. If Dean didn't operated the man on the spot I wouldn't have a patient in my infirmary. I wonder where he learned field surgery, he has a knack for it."

Lorne frowned a bit. That was another new piece of information on the kid. Maybe that was why Sheppard had sent Beckett to report to him. They were compiling a file on him since he literally appeared out of nowhere, but there were still huge holes in it.

That guy was a riddle wrapped in a mystery.

"Thanks Doc."

Beckett nodded and left.

When Dean arrived, Lorne was tapping with his pen on a tight schedule for the next two months.

"I'm assuming you know why you're here."

For someone who wasn't a marine his stance was impeccable.

"Yes, sir."

"Then let's cut to the chase, you'll be grounded for the next two months: no flying to the Athosian camp, no poker on Wednesday, nor vacations. You'll be on the night shift duty on the southern pier and on switch-duty 24/7."

Lorne saw Winchester open his mouth and stopped him with one glare.

"You'll do your best to not irritate anyone, soldiers or scientists. If I receive one more report on you this month you're going to mop the floors of Atlantis for a year. Is that clear Winchester?"

"Crystal clear, sir."

"Dismissed."

Dean left the office and went toward his room, cursing the whole time. His life kept going better and better.

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The next time he saw Wolan was two weeks after that, when he came back on Atlantis for a check-up with Wex. Dean was on duty like every other day and bored to death.

"Dean."

"Wolan, how are you?"

"The doctor says I am going to be fine, I will have only a scar."

"Good."

The Athosians and Dean were walking toward the medical bay. The older man stopped in mid track and gave him something wrapped in a leather cloth.

"This is for you my friend, you saved my son and I owe you my life. I noticed, when I left, that you had not yours with you."

Dean watched their surroundings, the corridor was empty and the kid was smiling at him.

"Thank for saving me, Dean."

"That's ok champ. Just don't get lost in the forest anymore, ok?"

The kid nodded.

Dean opened the cloth and examined with awe the piece of art in his hand. A knife: small enough to fit in one of his boots, with a very sharp blade and a perfect balance.

"Wolan it's beautiful, thanks."

"I made it myself. We have a saying on our homeworld: a hunter never leaves his home without a good knife."

They were almost at the medical bay and Dean hid the present in his boot. Wolan nodded in approval and Wex smiled.

"May this knife help you as you helped me."

And with that they parted ways. He watched as father and son entered the medical bay, the boy had a worshipful look in his eyes for his father.

Despite his punishment he didn't regret anything: he had helped to reunite father and son together. He had done his job.

Dean smiled and brushed the tip of his hidden knife.

That was a really good gift.

With his experience he knew it would come in handy when he least expected so he decided to hid it from Sheppard and the others.

He turned around and walked to his next shift.


End file.
